News, events, road trips, random roadside history and more from Vintage Roadside

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Prints now available from the Vintage Roadside Photo Archive!

Howdy everyone!

We wanted to share some news with you all - we're now offering prints from our archive of over 100,000 original vintage negatives, Kodachrome slides, and darkroom prints.

We've spent many years building the archive, and our most recent addition is a collection of several thousand original negatives shot by a Phoenix, Arizona Chamber of Commerce photographer in the 1950s. It's an amazing time capsule of vintage motels, gas stations, restaurants, dude ranches and more. We've also recently rescued several large batches of Kodachrome slides headed for the dumpster. Saving history any way we can. :-)

To create these prints we use a Howtek drum scanner and scan each negative at 5000 ppi. We're thrilled with the results and hope you'll enjoy seeing these glimpses of the past.

The first image below is a great look at Sheffler's Cafe in Salome, Arizona in the early 1950s. Sheffler's also served as a bus station and once contained a large taxidermy collection. In later years it was known as The Cactus Bar.

One of our favorites is this tourism photo from Arizona showing a model posing in front of a large Route 66 billboard. The billboard lists some of the amazing sights waiting for you as you cross the state.

Another favorite is this one showing the owners of the El Rancho (Once located on East Van Buren in Phoenix) posing next to their new neon sign. The original negative is a 4x5 b&w, however we've had a colorized version created using colors from an original postcard. This image was recently displayed at the Harley-Davidson Museum as an 8' print. (Also available in b&w.)

Color version of the new neon sign at the El Rancho Motor Hotel - Phoenix, Arizona. Print available here.

A look inside a classic 1950s roadside cafe complete with counter & stools, comfortable booths, and a Royal Crown Cola menu showing you the day's offerings. There's also a collection of candy bars and cigars behind the cash register.

We love old Kodachrome slides for many reasons, one of the biggest is that they were generally shot by tourists. People out there seeing the things we love to see - fellow roadtrippers from another generation!

We're lucky in that the Enchanted Forest is still there in upstate New York, but it's wonderful to see how it looked around the time it opened in 1956.

1950s Kodachrome of the Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks amusement park in Old Forge, NY. Print available here.

All images are available in a variety of sizes. Images are also available for museum, publication or commercial use. If you'd like to inquire about usage please send us a message through our contact form here.

If you'd like to keep up with the images as we make them available you can follow along at our Facebook photography page here.

See! World Famous Vintage Roadside™!!

Thanks for stopping by. We've decided to chronicle the roadtrips we take here at Vintage Roadside™ along with assorted history articles, preservation efforts, Vintage Roadside™ t-shirt news and roadside thoughts. We hope you enjoy the recaps. We urge everyone to jump in a car and see the wonder of the great American roadside. Remember, keep arms and legs inside the moving car at all times.

About Me

Vintage Roadside is an online gift shop and history site featuring t-shirts with authentic vintage graphics from the 1930s - 1960s as well as fine art prints from our travels. We are also actively involved in a wide range of preservation projects.